Come to Me Softly (Closer to You #2)(2)
Author: A.L. Jackson

Yeah, a weight. I’d admit it. I wasn’t cut out to be a father, and the idea of it scared the shit out of me.

But this weight was no burden, and the strongest sense of devotion pumped a new kind of need through my veins. Something overpowering. Something right.

Aly made me want to be better.

I pressed my hand firmer to her belly.

This made me want to be better.

Last night, I warned Aly that I was f**ked-up and I was always going to be. I could feel it there, still simmering in my bones, the truth of who I was.

And damn, Aly and I were young. I got that. She was only twenty and I was twenty-two, and I knew that only added to our issues, too.

I buried my nose in her hair and held her as close as I could get her. Because I thought my love for her . . . maybe . . . maybe it was stronger than all of that shit.

God, I hoped so.

I needed to be better, because there was no doubt these two needed me.

What scared me most was how much I needed them.

Aly sighed and mumbled, these cute, muddled sounds that did something crazy right at the center of my chest.

I nipped at her ear, coaxing her from sleep. “Baby,” I whispered low. I just needed to see her face. Talk to her. Make sure it was all as real as it had felt last night. “Come here.”

In my arms, she slowly rolled over to face me and her eyes blinked open. The intense green slipped all over me, memorizing, searching my face in the shadows like maybe she was needing reassurance of the same thing.

Today was a first for us. Waking up next to her instead of sneaking out of her room in the middle of the night like the ass**le I’d been, hiding us away and making her ashamed.

A slow smile curved her perfect mouth, and I couldn’t do anything but lean down and brush mine against the fullness, kiss the girl who’d undone me.

My chest tightened. All the months I’d been gone, I hadn’t known what to do with what I felt for Aly. The truth of what she was that I’d been fighting for so long. Now it was prominent, thrumming wildly with every pulse of my heart.

“Hi,” she said quietly.

Shifting, I wedged a knee between her legs as I climbed over her, hovered close. Damn, she was the most gorgeous thing. She stared up at me, her olive skin all smooth and flawless, her cheeks high and striking, defined.

Still, everything about her was soft.

Good.

I cupped my hand around that trusting face. “Morning, beautiful.”

God, how perfect was it waking up next to her?

Soft fingertips fluttered along my jaw. Something powerful simmered in her eyes. “You stayed.” The words seemed to come from somewhere deep within her, revealing the fear she still kept harbored inside.

My gut twisted because I wanted to take all that away from her, all the pain she’d been living with during the months I’d been gone. For the longest time, I just looked down at her, a promise held in my stare. “Baby, I already told you, I’m not going anywhere.”

My hold increased on her cheek, my nose an inch from hers. Because inside I already knew the answer to all the questions plaguing me.

Aly needed me.

I let part of my weight settle on her, careful not to hurt her, because I was finished with all that hurting shit. I murmured close to her ear, “I need you to believe that. Yeah, we’ve got some shit to deal with, but we’re going to do it together. Okay?”

Leaning back, I let myself get lost in her hopeful gaze. Instinctively, I twisted a lock of her hair with my finger. A bond. My home.

I’m not going anywhere.

Aly blinked like she was absorbing what I’d said. She wound her arms around my neck and buried her face in it. A breath of words flooded out to kiss the skin just under my ear. “I believe in you, Jared. I always have.”

Affection pounded against my ribs. God, it felt so good because this girl really f**king got me, understood when no one else could.

“Thank you.” I gripped her face and swept my mouth across hers. “Thank you for seeing something in me that I didn’t know was there.”

I kissed her deeper. My tongue dipped in to taste the sweet and the good, and Aly met me, her tongue all soft and welcoming.

And damn if just that little brush didn’t cause every last inch of my body to harden.

Motherfucking trigger.

For so long I’d thought of her that way, provoking all these feelings inside me I didn’t believe I had the right to feel.

Turned out I didn’t mind this trigger so much after all.

Outside her room, a door slammed, hard enough to shake Aly’s walls.

We both froze, eyes going wide, before our attention flashed to her closed door. For so many months, that door had hidden us away. Like some kind of sick, dirty little secret. Instead I should’ve been screaming out about how much this girl meant to me.

That’s how twisted I was. But I never claimed I was right in the head. Far from it. Thought I was doing her some kind of warped favor, saving face when in turn I’d just brought her shame.

Worry flashed in Aly’s eyes when the heavy footsteps plodded down the hall. A shadow blinked under the door when her brother passed.

I dropped my forehead to hers, and I suppressed the groan that rose in my throat.

Fuck.

Could anyone blame me for being none too excited at the thought of going toe-to-toe with her brother Christopher? Him finding me here? Dude was not gonna be pleased. But that meeting was inevitable.

No time like the present, I thought sarcastically. Seize the day and all that.

Pretty sure it was going to be Christopher seizing my balls.

Last night Aly told me she’d confided in him about the baby and how important it was to her that he’d been there for her in the time I was away.

“Think I have some business to take care of. Why don’t you wait here or maybe grab a shower while I have a little chat with your brother?” I whispered softly, tucking a lock of her hair behind her ear.

Wasn’t exactly a question. More like a plea.

Aly didn’t need to deal with more of the shit storm I conjured, then fled from the moment it hit land. I wanted her to stay here where I could protect her from what needed to be said. Or maybe I just didn’t want her to hear it, whatever Christopher would spew, because in it would be nothing but the truth.

Aly grimaced, like maybe I’d just wounded her.

I shook my head, knowing exactly what she was thinking. “Give me ten minutes, baby, then I’ll come back and we’ll spend the day in bed. Just you and me.”

Knowing eyes peered up at me. The look alone called out my bluff. “You can’t start hiding stuff, Jared. We’re a team now,” she emphasized. “We’re supposed to do this together.”